Whole wheat garlic and cumin bread

Started baking this bread with a combination of white flour and whole wheat flour but I ended up baking it with only whole wheat flour and it doesn't look bad either .. right? Of course it was a little crumbly but yea tasty too and of-course healthy!!

Ingredients
4-6 cloves garlic 
1 package rapid−rise yeast ( 2 1/4 tspn)
1/4 cup luke warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 to 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup milk

Method
Add yeast and the granulated sugar to the luke warm water and wait for the yeast to froth up.
Heat milk and mix olive oil.
Now mix the yeast mixture with the milk - olive oil mixture and keep in a big bowl. Also grate the garlic and throw in the cumin powder in the bowl, not to forget the salt.
Using a hand dough mixer add in the flour while the mixer is still running, keep adding the flour until the dough forms a ball. Place the dough in a bowl and keep in a warm place and wait until it rise.
Knead back the dough, make small balls and place in a baking tray. Keep it covered for a second rising. 
Once the dough has risen again , brush the dough with milk and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until its brown on top and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.

Bake and enjoy!

Jowar roti - easy method

Jowar is a millet and jowar roti is a staple food in many places in India. My Marathi neighbour had once shown me how to make jowar roti the traditional way, but failed miserably whenever I tried it. Finally I found a way to make jowar rotis, not the traditional way but I do fetch good rotis by this process, Glad to share and save the recipe :)

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Salt - 1 tspn
Oil - 1 tspn

Method
Take a flat pan and pour water and keep on the stove. Let the water boil properly, sieve in the jowar flour to the boiling water. Cook the flour in the water till all the water is absorbed by the flour. Remove from flame and knead the dough as much as possible while the dough is still hot/warm. The more you need the better the rotis. 
For the next step, i.e to knead the dough its highly recommended to have a chapatti presser/tortilla presser, else it is very difficult to roll the dough way you roll out chapatti dough.

So keep the chapatti presser ready by spreading plastic sheets in between ( so that you can easily remove the rotis ). Take a small portion the dough, make a small round ball and keep it in the presser between the plastic sheets and press it. Lift the lid of the presser, remove the roti and cook on a medium hot tava , flipping in between and also showing it directly to the flame , so that it puffs up. Repeat the process to get nice fluffy and soft jowar rotis.

Enjoy with some spicy curry !

Broccoli - mushroom - walnuts sandwich

A very simple and easy filling to make for  quick sandwich and can I say it is tasty too:) yes it was !!

Ingredients for the filling
Mushrooms- 200 gms
Broccoli - 200 gms
Garlic- 3-4 pods
Green chili - 1-2 
Salt and pepper 
Walnuts- coarsely crushed - a handful
One cheese cube

Method
Coarsely chop mushroom and broccoli and cook in high flame with grated garlic and green chilli and season with salt and pepper

Assembling the sandwich
Put on the sandwich maker and wait for the iron be hot. Place a slice of bread and then spread the filling generously. Sprinkle some grated cheese and also throw in some crushed walnuts. Cover it with another slice of  bread and close the lid of the sandwich maker. Grill it and serve it hot with tomato sauce and green chili sauce.
Enjoy!

. 

Red bell pepper- almonds sauce

I made this using roasted red bell pepper and toasted almonds.

Ingredients:

• 1 large roasted red bell pepper ( cover the pepper in aluminium foil and roast it over direct flame and it was well roasted in about 15- 20 mins, once roasted remove the skin and seeds of the pepper.)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup toasted almonds ( simply dry roast almonds)
• 2 tomatoes chopped (remove the seeds)
• a couple of fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper - to your taste
• 2 - 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor and slowly add the oil with the motor running  Season with salt and pepper.

This sauce is very yummy with our parathas, breads!

Banana chips

I remember making banana chips years back in my mom's kitchen and had totally forgotten about it, mom never encouraged me to make it after one trial and that speaks everything about it :) . Anyway I never bothered to try this at home until my little girl asked me to make at home. So I thought of giving it a try and I was happy with the result and so my kids when they saw the chips in their snacks box, love the delight on their faces. 

So this is how I made it 

Ingredients
Raw bananas - 2 - 3 long ones
Oil to fry ( I use coconut oil)
Salt - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
water 2 - 3 tbsp

Method
Wash the bananas and make a thin  vertical slit which makes it easier to peel the skin of the banana and then keep it aside.
Now you mix the salt and turmeric powder in water and keep aside, also keep a spoon handy.
Now keep the kadai on the stove and pour in the oil.
Once you realize that oil is hot enough take a slicer , if you have an adjustable slicer, adjust it to make sure you don't slice it too thin or too thick, slice the banana to the hot oil, the slices starts to fry and once the sizzling sound stops  add the salt and turmeric mixture with a spoon to the hot oil. It starts to sizzle again and once the sizzling stops, remove the chips from oil to drain it to a tissue paper.
Repeat!!
Let the chips cool and store it in an airtight container as long as it lasts! :)